A/N - Podie1 - I like the mantra. LOL. Keep it up! ;) Penn O'Hara - LOL. Your second review that you sent, which was firstly surprising, made me smile. I'm glad you found them and yes it's an enterprise that's forever expanding. I don't do things in halves, it's either all the way or nothing!

Summary: Mike has a run in with an old 'pal'. Sequel to Singin' the Baby Blues

Pairing: Mike/Alex

Series: Part of my Mike/Alex series, which seriously needs it own place in the world! Check out my profile for the titles of all the parts.

Reviews: I love them and they help me to know how I'm doing.

Warnings: There is violence in this chapter, but it is not terribly graphic. I don't do overly graphic violence.

I don't know if this is possible or if people like this do actually exist in this kind of world. But I've done it anyway. You know me!

The Antagonist

Being a cop isn't always about chasing bad guys, interrogating and arresting criminals. It is more often about following paper trails and completing endless amounts of paperwork. "I'm pretty sure there is an entire forest on my desk alone!" Was what Alex Eames had told her partner on countless occassions when they were sat in the squadroom, trying to catch up with the paperwork. "We need to recycle more!"

"I didn't realise you were an environmentalist?" Bobby asked, looking up from his work to smirk at his partner. Alex resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

"I'm taking it up." she replied, "Anything to get out of doing this." Despite her absolute hate at doing paperwork she had not stopped working whilst she was talking. The idea being the sooner it's done, the sooner Deakins would let them leave. It gave her great comfort that they were not the only ones, it seemed that today was 'Paperwork Day'. Most officers were in the squadroom tucked into their desks, knuckling down and getting on with it. Even Mike, who she found was more of a distraction than an actual incentive to work, was doing his paperwork. She knew he was watching her and she was trying her hardest to not notice.

"Are you planning on staging a sit-in about the over-production of paper in offices?" Bobby asked her, amused.

Alex looked up from her work, an idea forming. "Actually..."

"Eames, I was joking." Bobby told her quickly before she did actual stage a sit-in. "We'd still have to do the paperwork afterwards." hoping that would deter her away from the idea. Alex visibly sunk back into her seat when she realised the truth in what he had said.

Sighing, she continued with her work. "One of these days I'm gonna find of way of making you do it all." she told Bobby, pointing at him.

"That would take a lot of convincing." he said, pointing out the task could very well be impossible. Bobby hated his own paperwork, he wasn't about to agree to do hers as well.

She looked up at him, smirking. "I'd still give it a shot." Bobby laughed at her determination, and turned over another file and sighed when he saw how much was in it. Alex laughed at him. "Glad to see I'm not the only one."

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Mike had been trying to do his paperwork as well but he was finding it difficult because he could still see Alex even when he looked down at his work. His desk at such an angle, and with no one moving around as much as usual, she was within his direct line of sight. He never usually had a problem with that except Deakins was on his case about paperwork not being filled in often enough.

He was just cursing himself about it when he noticed a familiar face enter the office carrying a brief case and looking around the room for something. An officer walked over to the person at the door, seemingly asking if he needed any help. Mike watched as the officer pointed towards the break room and he could just make out the name 'Deakins'. Mike presumed that he was looking for Captain Deakins. He was going to shrug it off but there was something about that face that bugged him. Who was it?

Mike watched as he saw Captain Deakins walked out of the break room with the man in question and they walked towards his office. The man seemed to notice Mike too, but instead of a polite nod or an 'hello' he just seemed to scowl at him. Mike watched them as they entered Deakins office and as Deakins closed his door, Mike tried to get a good view of the man again, hoping to jog his memory. When Mike turned back around he saw Alex looking at him with confused but worried face, he realised that she must have seen it. Mike offered a smile and a wink to say he was fine. She seemed to accept it as she returned her attention to her work.

Mike tried to return to his but there was something bothering him. After a few minutes of trying to get something or anything done and failing miserably he gave up and decided to get a coffee. Grabbing his cup he headed to the break room, taking Carolyn's cup as he passed her desk. She smiled gratefully and he nodded. He looked behind him at Deakins office again and saw that the two were deep in conversation. Sighing Mike carried on walking to the break room and started berating himself for being so stupid.

He had been in the break room for a few minutes when he heard someone come in. "I thought I saw you come in here." Mike turned around at the sound of the voice and noticed the man standing at the doorway, walking into the room and putting his briefcase on his desk. Mike looked puzzled at the man, unsure of how to answer. "You don't recognise me, do you Mike?" his tone of voice was patronising and Mike was sure that he knew him but he couldn't place him.

Instead of saying that however, he said, "Am I supposed to?"

In the man looked upset although it looked feigned. "It's me!" he said, as if 'me' would solve the problem. Mike raised an eyebrow telling him that 'me' didn't quite do it's task. "It's me, Rob. We used to work together back when we were on patrol, remember?"

Mike suddenly felt it all rushing back to him, "Oh! Right, yeah. I remember." he nodded, but didn't reach out to shake his hand, offer him a hug or anything. "How ya doing?"

"I'm good, good. I'm working with the chief of D's now. I see you're at Major Case." Rob replied, Mike nodded. "How's that working out?"

Mike looked at him, thinking about that for a moment before saying, "You work for the chief of D's, shouldn't you know?" Something about this man told Mike not to trust him. His memory of him was a little blurred but he remembered enough to know he didn't like the guy and that there was bad history between them that went back more than a decade.

Rob just smiled, almost evily. "Yeah, I do know. You got your ass busted all the way to Staten Island and now you've got your big shot. I hope you don't blow it." Somehow Mike doubted the sincerity of that hope.

"Thanks." was all Mike could say to that.

"Still." Rob said, continuing. Mike had expected as much, and he stepped forward a little so he was facing Rob head-on. "I got to wonder how you managed it. Most of us have to work at it."

"Yeah?" Mike asked, taking an aggressive stance to match Rob's. "How did you get to be the suit wearing, briefcase type who runs errands for the chief of D's? It must look good on your resume."

Rob didn't seem to care about the insult just thrown at him. "It's a respectable job for respectable people. A job at which the likes of yo..." Rob's sentence trailed off as Alex walked into the room. She was heading for the coffee but stopped when she saw the two of them in some kind of stand-off. She looked between the two of them in confusion, but kept her distance.

"What's going on?" she asked Mike, when she realised that no one was going to move.

"Just catching up with a buddy." Mike told her, trying to make an emphasis on 'buddy' that she'd noticed and not Rob. She did and she nodded. Carrying on with the task she'd come in for, she walked behind Mike and poured the coffee. When she turned her head she could see Rob looking at her with curious eyes.

He looked at her clip-on ID badge. "Detective... Eames?"

She nodded, "Yes." Looking at him, as he continued to stand in front of Mike. She picked up the two cups and started towards the door.

"You work with Goren right?" Rob asked.

Alex nodded. "Yes, I do." Mike was thankful she was heading for the door. The last thing he wanted was some kind of confrontation with a viewer, even if it was Alex; especially if it was Alex.

Just as she reached the door Rob said, "Eames?" she turned back around to face him and his face looked tight. "So tell me did you catch fleas?" His tone of voice was insulting and that sentence was apparently meant to hurt but the meaning seemed to escape her. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, unsure of how to take his question, so he explained. "From sleeping with this mutt." He used his thumb and prodded it towards Mike, who now looked ready to explode.

Alex couldn't find a word, all she was doing was a pretty good impression of a fish from the shock. "Hey!" she heard Mike call out, almost growling. "You got a problem with me you tell me! You leave her out of it!"

"I'm just asking her question." Rob replied, trying to sound as if his question was the most usual question asked in a Major Case break room. Rob looked at Mike with disgust, "I mean, come on, who you kidding here. Her? Yourself?" He pointed to Alex and then at Mike, who looked really ready to explode. Now he remembered why he didn't like the guy - he had a knack for shoving people the wrong way and he enjoyed it. The one thing that entered Mike's mind is that the chief of D's must have been drunk when he promoted this guy because surely he wasn't that respectable. "You're just a low life, you don't really belong in Major Case. You're only here because of Deakins." Alex put the cups down on the table next to Rob's briefcase and walked towards them but maintaining some distance away.

"Hey, at least I'm not the chief of D's little pet!" Mike spat as he noticed there were some people at the door, obviously someone had heard something.

"Is that what she is?" Rob pointed to Alex.

"I've already told you, leave her out of it!" Mike raised his voice, feeling his anger rise from the pit of his stomach. He couldn't truly understand where this was coming from but he sure as hell wasn't going to take it.

Rob looked at Alex and gave her a grin, which she didn't appreciate. He had noticed how she'd moved closer as if she was taking a protective stance. Rob seemed to realise that she was the way to push his buttons. Looking back at Mike he said, "So she's your guard-dog?" he asked, incredulously. "A woman?"

"Excuse me!" Alex said, making herself heard. "I'm standing right here!"

"Is this an actual girlfriend?" He asked Mike, completely ignoring Alex's remark altogether. "You mean you've actually got a steady girlfriend? You gave up on taking them home for just a few nights?" Rob seemed to be in some kind of stride, although Alex wasn't sure why he was doing this but she could see that somebody was about to throw a punch; she just wasn't sure who. She stepped inbetween them when she saw Mike tensing up, ready to take one.

"Okay, I don't know who you are but this isn't how we do things at Major Case. So you're going to have to leave now." she told him, looking at him directly whilst using one hand to hold Mike back, although that hand was not visible to Rob.

"She really is a guard-dog. Mike Logan is hiding behind a woman!" He taunted, as if he was trying to get Mike to punch him. "Back in the day the only thing you'd do with a woman..." he never got to finish the sentence as Mike managed to get a fist past Alex and into Rob's face. Alex ducked to try to avoid Rob's sure to happen comeback punch and it did. As soon as it did, and Mike was holding his lip, Alex was stood back up holding the two of them at arms length.

"This has to stop right now!" she told them, turning her head several times to get the message through to both of them. Mike realised that Alex was right, and he couldn't reach Rob now without hurting her so he nodded. Alex lowered the arm that had been holding him back and then she turned to Rob, just in time to see the back of his hand make contact with her face, knocking her backwards and colliding her hip with the table. She winced at the contact and allowed herself to fall to the floor.

As she looked up she saw that Mike was now giving Rob as good as he could, pounding more than a few fists into him in return. However, Rob wasn't just sitting back and allowing him to punch him he was giving as good as he got. This was also when the former viewers were now trying to seperate the two of them. Alex tried to stand up but she ducked as what looked like a book came flying passed her. Standing up fully she could see that it was quickly turning into a brawl. She stepped forward and tried to help seperate them but unfortunately she was of no use either. It looked like it was going to take the final whistle to seperate this match.

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TBC.

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Rob's behaviour will be explained later. I promise.